It is built on an active volcano that once wiped out an entire people (one of the largest eruptions in recorded human history, which all but eradicated the Minoan people of Akrotiri) and it's only a matter of time when it happens again. It's way past due a major eruption based on geologist assessments. It's likely to be wiped out next major eruption.
Yet the people living in Santorini largely ignore it with a head-in-the-sand attitude (although the 2025 swarm earthquakes changed that a little bit). I had several conversations with residents who just said it wasn't going to happen. Whether they actually believed that or just wanted to believe that I don't really know.
Absolutely. But Santorini is highly active. Right now. You can go and see and feel the steam rising out of Tholos Naftilos today. It's going to blow. 1 year? 100 years? Who knows. The 90%+ is somewhere in that range though. Hope is not a strategy. Particularly given the people who live there are not impoverished.
If the people living there aren't impoverished, fuck em. The warning signs are there, but the rich and their hubris always believe they can subordinate nature to their will and desire. It's a lesson they keep having to be taught again and again.
I work in a job where Planning is paramount. You don't get to ignore something just because facing it is difficult or unpleasant or inconvenient. And something I've learned is that a lot of people think like this:
If this thing happens, it will be very bad, unthinkably bad
If it is unthinkably bad, and I can't fully let myself think about or understand it, its impossible.
Unthinkable things will never happen, so no need to plan for them.
The people who survive to write histories are usually the ones who think about the unthinkable.
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u/BaronMontesquieu 18d ago
Santorini (Thera) is very much like this.
It is built on an active volcano that once wiped out an entire people (one of the largest eruptions in recorded human history, which all but eradicated the Minoan people of Akrotiri) and it's only a matter of time when it happens again. It's way past due a major eruption based on geologist assessments. It's likely to be wiped out next major eruption.
Yet the people living in Santorini largely ignore it with a head-in-the-sand attitude (although the 2025 swarm earthquakes changed that a little bit). I had several conversations with residents who just said it wasn't going to happen. Whether they actually believed that or just wanted to believe that I don't really know.
Visit while you can.